Review: Orly Nail Defense Strengthing Protein Treatment

I recently bought a bottle of the Orly Nail Defense treatment, because I keep my nails constantly painted and they are often peeling on the ends. I don't have much experience with the Orly brand, but based on the price, I assumed it would be similar to Essie, OPI, and China Glaze.

The instructions say to use it as a base coat, and to replace the coating every 3-4 days. It can also be worn by itself over bare nails. It is only a little shinier than natural nails when it is put on by itself.

Things I Liked:

* It dries in less than a minute
* It doesn't smell terrible

Things I Didn't Like:

* It caused my nail polish to chip off in chunks after only a day

In general, I think this nail treatment should not be used as a base coat. Anywhere my nails were peeling, the nail polish came off, even with Seche Vite top coat over it. I ended up redoing my nails after less than 24 hours three times, which is about 10 times more often than I usually do, so actually made my nails worse.

I have yet to try this by itself, since I pretty much always have nail polish on. Perhaps I will use it in between manicures, maybe once a week. So far, I have not noticed a difference, but I only used it for about 5 days before it got on my nerves so much that I gave up on it. I don't think it is worth the $10.50, unless you are planning to take a break from nail polish for a week or two at a time in order to give it a chance to work. For me, that doesn't suit my lifestyle so I probably won't use it again.

Futurama- Why Didn't I think of That?!

I can't believe how awesome this is.

Easter

And on to a more seasonally appropriate design- Easter!

I took my idea from a post on YouTube by CutePolish, then added my own twist. I'm really not a fan of painting all my nails white, and tend to avoid any design where this is necessary. So instead of painting colored lines on the "eggs" like she did, I decided to paint each nail a different color and then paint white designs over them. I think this is more authentically Easter egg for me anyway, since one of the ways we always colored eggs when I was a kid was to write on the egg with a white crayon, and then color them, so the egg would be colored and the writing would be white. I kept her spring chicken design though.

These two photos feature the same hand, but I wanted to show our best two colored eggs of the year. My husband and I colored eggs with my grandma. He had never colored eggs before, but he did a nice job! The top egg is mine, and the bottom egg is his. Yes, we already ate them ;)

This is the original video by CutePolish. Her chicken looks a lot better than mine!

Valentine's Nails (Very Late!)

I know it's super late (by almost two months!) but I told myself I would post my Valentine's designs, and so I will by gum!

There are two- the first one is what I wore in the days leading up to Valentine's Day, and the second is the one I actually wore on the day.

These fun hearts were actually very easy to do. I didn't even use a nail art brush, just a dotting tool and the regular nail polish brush for the big hearts. I used a red polish first, then put pink over it in a shadow box style a la Emma Watson, then put the hearts over it.

 Once I thought of the Valentine heart saying "Bee Mine" I knew I had to make it into a nail design. And I did! I'm not very happy with how the bee came out, but I like the hearts.

The trail of hearts coming out of the bee's bottom!

First Knitting Project in 6 Years!!!

Ever since I taught myself to crochet, I haven't knitted a single thing. With the exception of several attempts at knitting a hat in the round, all of which failed miserably and don't count. So, I am especially excited to introduce you to my first finished project and my new favorite accessory-

The Cowl

This is a close-up of the pattern.

It wears easily, not too tight at the neck.

This is the pattern I printed out from Lionbrandyarn.com. It is a free pattern, so if you search for "knit cowl" you will find it easily. It is an easy pattern. All I did was knit three rows in stockinet, repeat the above pattern twice, then do a 12-stitch decrease in one row, then three more rows of stockinet. It took about three hours all together. Pretty easy!

Umm... What?

Tell me this isn't the craziest thing you've ever seen on a thumbnail? If it isn't, please share the craziest thing you've ever seen on a thumbnail below! If possible, with pictures.

BTW, how could she do anything with little people glued to her nail? Imagine taking a shower or doing the dishes. My husband would shoot me.

Nail Inspiration: A Design for Every Nail

One thing I love to do is put a different pattern on every nail. It is time consuming, and requires planning, but I just love how it looks. Not to mention it makes it so much easier to match a manicure to a week's worth of outfits. (That is, assuming my manicure lasts a week!)

I love the photo below, but I didn't want to paint the same design on every nail. I don't own enough blue shirts for one thing, and all those white and black lines are reminiscent of the Beetlejuice movie. But I loved the little bow, so I incorporated it into my interpretation below.

The little sailor bow is there, but matched with some pink and white stripes, black and white polka dots, and a fun little design I gleaned from a Goth Lolita fabric pin that came with a dress I bought in Japan. The gold glitter is I'm Not Lion by China Glaze.

I used a white striper to do the heavy work here. I use Sinful Colors stripers because the polish is thick and goes on smoothly if you have a steady hand. The only downside is that it tends to dry out quickly, so unless you use it really often, it will likely become gooey and stringy before you are finished with it, and you will have to throw it away. There is nothing worse than finishing a line on a design and having a little polish string dangle off the brush and float down onto your design! If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you are fortunate indeed.

I'm also entering this design in Sincerely Stephanie's skittles contest! I'm new to blogging, so I hope some people will come on over and subscribe, even if I don't win!

The Rules:
Entries must be submitted by February 16th 11:59PM EST through the InLinkz tool below.
One entry per person
You must follow Sincerely Stephanie via GFC to enter
Old manicures are allowed, but new ones are encouraged!
All manicures must be done on your own nails (no falsies) and must be your own work. Have at least 4 nails showing in your pictures.
You don't have to have a blog! Just upload your image to flickr or another photo sharing service and use that link.
Open Internationally! (Or wherever Harlow & Co. ships!) 


If you are seeing this, haven't entered, and still have time, then do it!

Cat-stravaganza!

Time to be a kooky cat lady, and share some recent kitty pictures with you all. Ready, set, oooo, awwww!

Sophie props herself against the wine cabinet, to be near me while I study.

Puffball, sleeping on his head.

My husband tries to study, but Puffball couldn't handle the pressure and passed out.

 In his dreams, Puffball belongs in the Cirque de Soleil

Angry cat or blissed out cat? You decide.

Nail Fail: Valentine's Day Kisses

I'm sure most people are familiar with "Cute Polish" on YouTube. If you are like me, then you constantly check for her next video, to learn tricks for doing complicated-looking designs that are actually very easy to do. Most of the time, her designs work out for me and I like them. This time though....... ugh. Disaster.

Aforementioned "Valentine's Kisses" design by Cute Polish.

My "interpretation"

Now, why did this nail art fail?

 

1. I think the lines I drew on the lips were too thick. I used the end of a toothpick, which usually gives very small dots and lines. However, on this design, they succeeded only in making my lips look like crippled candy canes.

2. The polish I used as a base coat and lip liner was too thick. It is by Ulta, it is called Set the Nude and it is usually a very useful color. It is just between off-white and taupe and a great base for designs. However, I didn't like how it went with the pink and red very much, and with the lines being too big, it is impossible to tell what the design is supposed to be.

My advice for doing this pattern

 

1. If possible, make the lips bigger and the lines smaller. Use a nail art brush (if you have one) or cut down an old nail polish brush from a bottle you don't use anymore and make the lines with that instead of a toothpick. 

2. Use white or light pink instead of anything with a brownish tint. It will coordinate better and bring out the bright colors of the pattern.

3. The all-over design on every nail looks good on Cute Polish, however I did not like it on myself. If I did this design again, I would only do it on one or two nails, and do something else on the other nails. I think it would look cuter if it was matched with a nail or two of solid red and solid pink, maybe with some glitter, and another two designs. I would do a large heart on one nail, and a message on the other. Currently, I'm toying with "Be Mine." You could also do one nail with little hearts and one nail with kisses, and alternate their colors on each nail. There are a lot of design options.

Copy Cat: Metallic Leopard Print

I often get inspiration from random photos I find on Google Images or Pinterest, and I collect them for later use. Sometimes I copy them straight up, like this time, and sometimes I just use them for ideas for other designs.

I took the first photo and altered it by using a dark brown metallic polish instead of a solid brown. Sometimes I make the leopard design smaller, but because I only used one color for the spots, I made them larger like the picture.

Random Google Images photo.

My photo. Pardon the polish on the cuticles, I haven't cleaned them up yet.

I like metallic polish on short nails because it looks like its on purpose, even if you only have short nails because otherwise they break constantly, like mine.

Coronation Post

This is my first post, so I thought I should introduce myself a little bit. I'm a post-grad, working on the pre-requisites for entrance into medical school. If all goes well, I will be taking the MCAT in July, finishing my classes in August, and preparing my applications for the fall. Then all I have to do is wait for the acceptance letters to roll in! Haha.... Yeah, I wish :-P

So, in the tiny bit of free time I have these days, my main interests are nail art and knitting/crochet. I actually used to crochet exclusively, but since I was attacked by a dog last fall and my thumb was deeply bitten, I haven't been able to use a crochet hook. I have some nerve damage in the thumb, which makes putting pressure on it very uncomfortable (rather like the tingling feeling when your leg falls asleep). I learned that if I hold one knitting needle in my left hand, and prop the other one against my leg, I am able to knit. So, I'm trying to relearn knitting and building up my stitch repertoire.

For nail art, I actually have a very slick system. It takes at least 10 minutes for each layer of polish to dry, so I do my nails while I study. I've learned to hold a pencil such that it doesn't disturb the wet polish, so while I'm reading and taking notes, I'm also waiting for my nails to dry between coats! I highly recommend it, because at least for me, I find it very difficult to sit down in one place for an hour and not touch anything. If I try to do anything else while painting my nails, I ALWAYS mess up at least one! Usually it's on the top coat too, when I am just about finished.

So, this blog will be mostly about nails, and knitting. And a little bit about life in general, and maybe a little about my cats as well ;-) BTW, I have three cats. One is a tabby I rescued, and the other two are beautiful blue-point Himalayans. They are (hopefully) a mating pair. My male Puffball is about 9 months old now, and I recently got a 2-year old female Sophie, who hasn't gone into heat yet. I'm expecting her to do just that in the spring, and then I'm expecting Puffball to do something about it! And then, with any luck, I will have a litter of lovely fluffy kittens about two months after that. Just in time for finals! Haha.

(PS- The cone is on Sophie. When I first introduced them, they had a little "spat" and Puffball scratched her eye. But don't worry! She's fine now. There wasn't any permanent damage, and now they are pretty good friends :-) )